Running The Gauntlet
by Impure Perfection
Summary: In a world where your life depends on data, losing even a fragment of data can define the course of your life. And when Kirito loses a chunk of his data the entire SAO world is flipped upside-down by the changes.


**The Show Goes On**

Kirito sighed in relief when the door shut behind Asuna.

He loved the hazel haired girl, he really did. But at the moment he was being reminded why he loved playing solo.

She had been fretting and fussing over him ever since they had returned. The girl had thrown every HP restorant, healing crystal, and status restorant she had in her stock.

Not a one had worked.

And each time one failed to remedy the situation she had grown more and more frantic. Finally Kirito had told her to go track down Agil in hopes he knew of a situation such as this.

And now, four hours later, he was finally left alone to process the events of the day. And this, this was the main reason he had always preferred playing solo. Even when everything went to hell in a hand basket he could always step away from it, digest it, and figure out where to go from there. With teammates, or a partner as he preferred to think of Asuna, he not only had to worry about his own thoughts but hers and handle her own worry atop his own. Now that he could finally process it he realized it was more than the last four hours that had stressed it him.

It had been an abnormal day from the beginning. Not only was he no longer a solo player, he was a member of the largest guild in the game. Yep, Kirito the Black Swordsmen, the Beater, and last Solo player on the frontlines had been part of The Knights of the Bloodoath, all thanks to a botched wager against Heathcliff. On top of that his black attire had been foregone in exchange for the white and red uniform. Even worse than that he had been forced to party up with people other than Asuna. The first was their supposed team leader Godfree. He hadn't been a bad guy, he'd actually been pretty nice to Kirito. Until he had died, of course. Then there was the traitorous bastard Kuradeel. He had seemed sweet enough at the onset of the adventure, though Kirito had suspected the man still bore ill intent. Kirito had publicly thrashed him after all.

Had they simply gone on their little exploration voyage and returned it would have merely been an odd day.

Kuradeel had other ideas.

The instant they had stopped for lunch the lowlife had poisoned them all and killed off Godfree. Then the scum, after stabbing Kirito, had proceeded to rant and rave about vengeance and the glory of finally being able to kill the fool who had humiliated him. Luckily Asuna had shown up and blown the fool back before removing the sword that was holding Kirito in place.

Had that been the end of the day it would have simply been another close call.

Fate had other ideas.

Instead of retreating, as any common fool would have, Kuradeel had turned on Asuna and attempted to finish them both off. Having long since grown tired of the man Kirito lunged forward and, due to no longer having his sword, used his own arm to pierce Kuradeel's chest and shatter the scum into a thousand polygons. He had also been forced to use his own arm to block Kuradeel's initial attack.

And _that_ was where Asuna's state of panic came from.

His arm had still yet to respawn. His HP had been refilled. His max HP hadn't decreased. His status bar showed no status ailments. So then he had no status penalties, no detractions from his max HP, no nothing. His arm just no longer existed. All he had was a stump that stopped a few inches short of where his wrist _should _have been. He'd tried several times to interact with objects, just to see if the glitch was in the imaging mechanics of the game, but objects passed clear through where his arm should have been.

Sighing and bringing his arm up to look at it Kirito felt the panic creeping up his spine as questions began to plague his mind.

Why wasn't his arm reforming?

Was it just a glitch in the game or was his arm really gone?

Was his real arm okay?

Was his real body okay or had it wasted away?

Was he nothing more than a data construct saved into the game?

Would he ever get his arm back?

How would he fight without his arm?

What would Asuna think?

Would she mind?

Would she leave?

He could no longer protect her, shouldn't he let her go to someone stronger?

Should he…

Clamping his eyes shut Kirito forced the doubts, the questions, the fear, and the panic from his mind.

He was alive.

By tooth and nail he'd clear this damned death game and make it home. It didn't matter whether he got his arm back or not. He was alive, well, and could fight. He fought one handed before he discovered the two handed skill; he could and would switch back. Glitch or not he would fight on and get back to the real world. So what if his arm was gone? The rest of him was still here and kicking. They'd have to cut him up piece by piece before he'd give up.  
As for Asuna, if anyone said they were a better match for Asuna he'd introduce them to the business end of **Phantasmal Dirge**.

Because arm or no arm he was finishing this death game and taking her with him.


End file.
